Weekend Lecture: The Calculus of Consent

Global Macro Monitor

Dec. 28, 2012, 6:59 PM

Given that Congress will be cramming this weekend to meet their Monday night deadline, we thought you'd find this lecture informative. One of us taught at George Mason University when Buchanan won his Nobel Prize.

Wikipedia nails the philosophy of Public Choice Theory. A bit wonky but stick with it. Buchanan is excellent.

While many political scientists define the political process as a system in which the policy decisions are viewed as a private interest vs. public interest struggle, Buchanan and Tullock suggest that the public interest is simply the aggregation of private decision makers.

Think they're working for the public interest? The lecture is wonky.

Gordon Tullock is an economist and professor emeritus of Law and Economics at George Mason University, and is best known for his work on public choice theory.

James Buchanan is a Nobel Prize winning economist who is also widely recognized for his work in the field of public choice theory and constitutional economics.

In this lecture, given to mark their book's 25th anniversary in 1987, Tullock and Buchanan talk about the impact of the Calculus of Consent on political and economic academia. Richard E. Wagner, currently the director of economics graduate programs at George Mason University, also comments.